Presenting the 2025 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2025-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 48 books.
(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 54 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2025 – A List of Lists – enjoy!).
Books that made six lists –
Baldwin by Nicholas Boggs
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
King of Kings by Scott Anderson
Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
Books that made seven lists –
Endling by Maria Reva
A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland
Isola by Allegra Goodman
Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
On the Calculation of Volume: Book III by Solvej Balle
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
The Slip by Lucas Schaefer
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
Books that made eight or nine lists –
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
Books that made ten lists –
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
King of Ashes by S. A. Crosby
Books that made 11 lists –
The Antidote by Karen Russell
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhurst
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Books that made 13 or 14 lists –
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Books that made 15 or 16 lists –
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
Books that made 17, 18 or 19 lists –
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Flesh by David Szalay
Heart the Lover by Lily King
The book that made 20 lists –
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Interestingly this year, there was a much, much greater spread of books. Had I included books that made five lists, there would have been another 15 books on this list, including Australian author, Charlotte Wood for Stone Yard Devotional (I mention that because Australians rarely make this list). Furthermore, in previous years there have been a handful of books that dominated, making 25-30 lists – quite a different scene this year!
In terms of this year’s list, I’ve read five (Brooks, Balle, Roy, Kitamura and King); have one in the TBR stack (Goodman) and I am busting to read another bunch (Macfarlane, Li, Yee, Elmhurst, and Szalay). Will I read the ‘winner’ (Choi)? Yes, I think so.
Do you agree with the critics – will any of these titles make your ‘Best of 2025’ list?
I started Flashlight and despite a really strong opening, I lost interest. Maybe I should give it another go.
Interestingly, despite Flashlight being on all of these lists, I’m not really aware of any of my reading friends and book bloggers having read it!
Same. It’s no coincidence: the prologue started out as a New Yorker short story. She then expanded it into a novel…
Ah. That makes sense now.
No I don’t think I’ve read any but I did skim
the list. “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy is Aussie isn’t it? I have her on my TBR but still haven’t got to her.
Thanks as always for doing this list.
Yes, Charlotte McConaghy is Australian! I read her last book, Migrations, and didn’t get on with it all, so won’t be reading this (although a friend loved it).
That’s interesting Late. I’ve had Migrations on my virtual TBR but have never got to it.
#Cringe #EpicFail I haven’t read any of them. Flashlight has just come in from the library, but it will have to go back unread, I’m bogged down with House of All Nations, and I don’t want to start another long book.
TonyInterruptor is my current bedtime read, it’s hilarious.
I haven’t read any,and didn’t really expect that I might have. But thanks to your list I am definitely going to buy A Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me.
Buckeye was one of my books of the year and I loved Perfection. I’ve yet to read Heart the Lover ( just started The Pleasing Hour) but I’m pleased to see it made so many lists.
Have you seen my list? I found 59 list for my round-up and it changed the numbers somewhat on the top books. I am based in the USA, so had an easier time accessing resources here since I could figure out a few work-arounds to gain access (like a short term subscription to the Washington Post) but I had a much harder time figuring out how to see lists published in Australia and Canada. Take a look: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-top-50-books-of-2025-best-books.html
I gave credit to three Australians: McConaghy, Woods, and Brooks. I know Geraldine Brooks lives in the US now but she harkens from your fair lands, and Memorial Days is about her grieving experience after the death of her husband, which is set on a island off the Australian Coast.
I can see the funny side of this list! 😀
Thanks so much for doing this. All those lists were intimidating! As could be predicted by how far behind I get on the new stuff, I have only read one of these (Wild Dark Shore—very good), but I have several either on my list or in my stack. Looking forward to them!